Entre-temps / Renouvellement

Another month later, here I am, updating my digital life story. In the briefest of brief updates, in slightly less than seven weeks, I will be a Master. A Master of Arts in International Studies, with concentrations in Europe and Environmental Policy, that is. However, when it comes to my life right now, the operative word is a French word (quelle surprise). That word is entre-temps. "In the meantime", literally, in between times. I am in between times. I am in between the reality of graduate school and the reality of professional life post-graduation. I'm trying to find a job, trying to find a new apartment, trying to find a new direction. I am, succinctly, in between phases of life. This is an interesting spot in which to be, but it's an excellent spot in which to find myself. I have no limits, nothing to hold me back, nothing to make me say "No". While there is stress and uncertainty, there is also joy and relief and renewal.

Renouvellement. Reprise. Je reprends. Renewal. Acceleration. I begin again.

Spring is frantic and chaotic, but full of life and overflowing with renewal. It's the perfect time to graduate. This is the story of my Spring, as it currently expresses itself in the form of Spring Break and the first half of the Spring Quarter.

For Spring Break in mid-March, I went home to spend the week with my family in Southwest Washington. We spent a long weekend on the Washington coast near Pacific Beach, staying at the Sandpiper Beach Resort, which has been a traditional coastal retreat for our family since the late 1970s when my parents first were married. It was incredibly relaxing and renewing to spend our days there walking along the beach, playing board games together, cooking together, reading fascinating new novels, sleeping in and napping, watching the rain fall sideways and the wind beat the trees on the beach further into their eastward leaning, being surprised by a pod of grey whales spouting their way along the coast in front of our window, and being silly, doing doughnuts in the car on the beach in the middle of the night with some of the most important people in the world and afterwards stopping to admire the clarity of the stars and the Milky Way. My week at home was a renouvellement as I dive into the final quarter of my graduate degree (but hopefully not my last graduate degree; see below). And now, some photos: 

Arriving in PDX and saying hello to the infamous PDX carpet. 

After a solid decade, it's nice to see you again, Sandpiper. 

The lovely Elsa Von Stauffenberg Ranger, frolicking on the beach. 

On this trip, I learned that my parents had been making trips to
the Sandpiper (with extended family or with us kiddos) since the late 1970s.
After nearly forty years of marriage, they are still such an inspiration to me.

"Oooh, messy baby!" Elsa loved playing in the seafoam.

Puppy-bombed on the beach

The traditional Sandpiper Sisters Pic

Crab carcasses galore

Feeling fresh like ocean spray (the real thing, not the juice brand)

Intact sand dollars are always a treasure

Sleepy Elsa girl

The beach, sunshine, a good book, and a glass of wine (not pictured) = perfection.

The remainder of my time at home was relaxed and yet full of activity; things to do, places to go, tasks to complete, and a couple of good old friends with whom to reconnect. And most of the time, the weather was beautiful. It made me miss life in the Northwest.

My girl, Scout.

Leaving Portland.

It is now the fifth week of the last quarter of my first masters degree. Academic requirements haven't become too overwhelming as of yet, but that cliffside is fast approaching. Entre-temps, I have been thoroughly enjoying this new transition into spring and a new phase of life, and all of the social buzz that is inherent in being young and single in a vibrant city.

Martinis and Manicures downtown with a friend.

An Easter morning run Easter Bunny.

I have begun running several times a week in earnest (for real), and each Wednesday,
a few girl friends and I run the local 3.5-mile pub run. This is so much fun, and absolutely one of the best parts of my week.

I went to see Father John Misty play at the Ogden Theater with a friend a week or so ago;
a truly amusing and entertaining show, and most excellent music!

Korbel Prom was last weekend (yes, as a matter of fact, grad school is very much like high school, except everyone is 7-10 years older and you can legally drink). I had a great time, taking my best gal friend as my date and enjoying car karaoke with good friends, dancing, photos, dressing up, and the typical amusing Prom drama with my classmates. I am surrounded by fun, life-loving, ambitious, smart, good people and it's fantastic to see where everyone is going after we wrap up this academic phase of life. 

With seven weeks left to go until I walk across the stage with a couple of thousand other random DU grad school graduates, what happens next? Well, to begin with, I'm doing my best to find a job in Colorado and stick around to enjoy this colorful state for a few years. As it stands, Europe is in my five-year plan and the Pacific Northwest is on the potential list during that time period as well, but I feel drawn to stay in this territory, settle into adult life a bit, and explore all of the wonderful things that this city and the surrounding environs have to offer. I hope to find a professional job at DU and soon begin to pursue a second Masters degree (this one in Environmental Law). So many (i.e., too many) things are still up in the air as it stands, but I'm excited for whatever adventures might lie ahead. Entre-temps, I will keep running, keep laughing, keep studying, keep adventuring, and above all, keep renewing, during this, the in-between time.

To quote a line from a poem that I read recently and that has stuck to my bones,

"Honey, you're a goddamn wildfire; you choose who you burn."